"Now I just have to find my way back to the road."
Samuel remained where he was for a while, letting the unfamiliar surroundings sink in.
The wind swept through the narrow gorge, playing with the long blades of grass that swayed gently along the riverbank in a slow, steady rhythm.
The river rushed endlessly past him, crashing against the massive rocks before exploding into white spray and merging once more into a single, wild current.
After the crushing silence of the cavern...
...every sound felt almost overwhelming.
Slowly, Samuel closed his eyes.
The sun warmed his skin.
Not intensely.
Not enough to drive away the cold and exhaustion completely.
But enough...
...to remind him that he was still alive.
He drew the fresh air deep into his lungs.
It smelled of damp earth.
Of grass.
Of the clear water rushing through the river.
Each breath seemed to wash the dust from his lungs—the dust that had settled there during the long descent.
He coughed several times before the rough ache in his throat slowly faded.
Only now...
...did his body truly begin to understand.
He wasn't down there anymore.
Not between narrow stone walls.
Not in darkness.
Not inside that suffocating silence that had swallowed every thought.
Slowly, Samuel opened his eyes again.
Sunlight shimmered across the river's surface before him.
The current was so strong that countless tiny whirlpools formed and vanished almost instantly.
Dense grass grew between the smooth stones, its rich green almost unreal after the endless gray of the past hours.
Here and there, delicate wildflowers had fought their way between the rocks, their blossoms swaying gently in the breeze.
It was beautiful.
And yet...
...the weight in his chest remained.
Something...
...that even the beauty of this place couldn't wash away.
Slowly, Samuel walked toward the riverbank.
There, he carefully lowered himself onto one knee.
Immediately...
...his scraped knees reminded him of their existence.
A sharp pain shot through both legs as they touched the hard ground, and Samuel grimaced.
For a few minutes...
...he had almost forgotten the pain.
Now...
...it had returned.
Carefully, he lowered his hands into the water.
The cold hit him instantly.
Samuel flinched.
The water was ice-cold.
Slowly, he scooped some into his hands and splashed it across his face.
The shock made him draw a deep breath.
Again.
And again.
The gray dust clinging to his skin dissolved immediately, carried away by the current.
For a brief moment, the water darkened...
...before the river swallowed every trace of it.
Samuel wiped his face.
Then ran his fingers through his hair.
With every movement, more dirt washed away.
As though the world itself were slowly cleansing him...
...of the darkness he had left behind.
Then...
...he looked at his hands.
The torn cuts burned fiercely beneath the icy water.
Tiny fragments of stone lodged in his palms were slowly washed free.
Small drops of blood mixed with the clear current...
...and disappeared at once.
Silently, Samuel studied his fingers.
The skin was split open.
Black dirt remained beneath his fingernails.
One nail still hung half torn away.
The sight alone made the finger throb painfully once more.
Slowly, Samuel raised his eyes to the river's surface.
Between the gentle ripples...
...he saw his reflection.
At first...
...he barely recognized himself.
His face was pale.
Dark circles lay beneath his eyes.
Dust still clung to his cheeks and hair.
Several scratches crossed his forehead.
His shirt was torn in countless places.
Dried blood had stained the fabric a deep brown.
He looked...
...like someone who had spent days fighting the world itself.
Samuel stared silently at his reflection.
For a brief moment...
...he thought of his mother.
"She'd send me straight back inside the house."
A faint smile appeared on his face.
But it disappeared almost as quickly.
Because smiling...
...hurt.
Not because of his injuries.
Not because of his exhaustion.
But because of something...
...far deeper.
His gaze drifted once more into the river's current as the memories slowly began to return.
"I wonder if they're having breakfast right now..."
The thought came suddenly.
It caught him completely off guard.
Perhaps his father was already on his way to work.
Perhaps his mother was cleaning the kitchen at this very moment while his little sister sat sleepily at the table, still barely awake.
The images formed in his mind on their own.
So vivid.
So familiar.
So close.
And yet...
...completely beyond his reach.
Samuel swallowed hard.
For a brief moment, he allowed himself to linger in the memory.
Then reality caught up with him again.
He forced himself to lift his eyes.
To look ahead.
"Not now."
"You can't change any of that right now."
He remembered Gustov's words.
Not the exact sentence.
Only the feeling behind them.
That some things held you back.
That you had to learn to let go.
Not forget.
Let go.
Samuel let out a slow breath.
Carefully, he rose to his feet.
His body still felt heavy.
But his mind had become clearer.
Slowly, he turned around.
His eyes settled on the rock face from which he had just emerged.
He frowned.
The cave entrance was barely visible.
Hidden between several massive boulders was nothing more than a narrow crack overgrown with grass, small shrubs, and dangling roots.
If Samuel hadn't known a cave lay behind it...
...he would have walked right past it.
And yet...
...behind that insignificant fissure...
...was a cavern vast enough to swallow entire cities.
And within it...
...that structure.
Samuel stared at the entrance for a long time.
It felt impossible.
Almost as though the world itself had chosen to hide its greatest secret...
...behind nothing more than a crack in the mountain.
His thoughts drifted back once again.
To the colossal gates.
The endless pillars.
The giant stone heads.
The countless fractures.
Part of him wanted to go back.
Not far.
Just...
...one more look.
Perhaps he had overlooked something.
Perhaps there was an explanation after all.
Perhaps...
Samuel closed his eyes.
Immediately...
...another image appeared.
The fall.
The abyss.
The darkness.
The panic.
The suffocating confinement.
His heart immediately began to race.
He opened his eyes again.
No.
Not today.
Perhaps...
...never.
Slowly, he took one step away from the cave entrance.
Then another.
Finally...
...he turned away.
The temple disappeared behind the rocks.
But Samuel already knew...
...he would never forget what he had seen.
Not in a year.
Not in ten.
And no matter where his journey would eventually lead him...
...a part of him would one day have to return.
To search for the answers...
...that were still waiting beneath that mountain.
But today...
...was not that day.
Today...
...he first had to find his way back.
Samuel slowly let his gaze travel along the gorge.
It stretched endlessly in both directions between the towering cliffs, as though the river had carved its path through an ancient wound in the world itself.
The walls rose almost vertically.
In some places, great shelves of rock jutted far out above the water.
Elsewhere, small trees clung desperately to narrow cracks in the stone.
Their roots searched tirelessly through the bare rock...
...as though refusing to surrender to the overwhelming landscape.
Samuel stepped closer to the riverbank.
The water was crystal clear.
So clear...
...that even beneath the foaming current he could make out the smooth stones resting on the riverbed.
But the speed of the river told him immediately...
...crossing it was impossible.
Only a few careless steps...
...and the current would sweep him away.
He followed the water with his eyes.
Somewhere...
...it came from the mountains.
And somewhere...
...this gorge had to end.
"If water can find a way..."
"...maybe I can too."
The thought was simple.
Almost comforting.
He didn't have to think about ancient temples anymore.
Not about voices.
Not about questions...
...that no one could answer.
Only...
...the next step.
Samuel lifted his head.
Above the towering cliffs, only a narrow strip of sky was visible.
The sun had already sunk much lower than it had that morning.
Its light slanted into the gorge, bathing the opposite cliff in warm shades of gold while his side had already fallen into shadow.
He tried to get his bearings.
Urag e'Zogtar had explained how to bypass the mountains.
Not through them.
Not over them.
Always along their western edge.
Samuel closed his eyes for a moment, trying to remember every single word.
But his memory was blurred.
Too much had happened since then.
The forest.
The wagon.
The farewell.
The abyss.
The cave.
The temple.
Everything lay piled on top of one another like layers that could no longer be separated.
He opened his eyes again.
"I've wandered far off the path."
For the first time...
...he spoke the thought aloud.
It was simply a fact.
He had no idea how far.
Several kilometers...
...probably.
Perhaps much farther.
During the fall and inside the cave, he had lost every sense of direction.
Samuel let out a quiet sigh.
A few hours ago...
...he would have panicked.
Now...
...he simply felt exhausted.
His eyes drifted once more toward the narrow crevice hidden behind him.
Nothing about it hinted at what lay beyond.
A traveler would walk straight past it.
An animal probably would as well.
The world seemed to have hidden one of its greatest secrets...
...behind an entrance smaller than many ordinary caves in the forest.
Samuel found himself wondering...
...whether anyone even knew this place existed.
Whether anyone had ever descended into it again.
Or whether the temple below had remained...
...for centuries...
...perhaps even millennia...
...completely alone.
A cold shiver ran down his spine.
He forced himself to look away.
"Stay focused, Samuel."
He couldn't allow himself to become consumed by it.
If there was one thing he had learned over the past few days...
...it was that curiosity could kill him faster than hunger.
Slowly, he began following the river downstream.
A narrow strip of grass wound between the rocks, just wide enough to walk upon.
Again and again, Samuel had to climb over larger boulders or squeeze himself between the cliff walls.
But compared to everything he had endured behind him...
...even this path felt easy.
The wind grew a little stronger.
It swept through the tall grass...
...carrying with it the fresh scent of the river.
For the first time in what felt like forever...
...Samuel heard birds again.
They flew high above the gorge from one cliff wall to the other.
Their calls echoed between the stone walls...
...before fading into the distance.
Samuel stopped for a moment.
He listened.
That simple sound...
...made him smile unexpectedly.
It reminded him...
...that the world was still alive.
That there were places where everything wasn't defined by ancient ruins...
...abysses...
...and death.
For one brief moment...
...the world felt...
...normal again.
At least...
...as normal as it still could for him.
He pulled his backpack a little higher onto his aching shoulders...
...and continued on his way.
Behind him...
...the hidden cave remained.
Deep beneath the mountain.
With its silent temple.
With its endless questions.
And Samuel didn't know...
...that he had just left behind a place whose name had once inspired awe throughout the entire world.
A place over which kingdoms had risen...
...and fallen.
To him...
...it had become nothing more than another memory.
A memory...
...he desperately wanted to forget.
Yet deep within him...
...the temple had already left something behind.
Not an answer.
Not knowledge.
Only...
...a single question.
"What for?"
Samuel walked for a long time without stopping.
With every step, he put more distance between himself and the hidden cavern.
The cliff behind him gradually disappeared around a bend in the gorge until nothing remained to suggest that one of the most mysterious places he had ever seen lay concealed there.
And yet...
...he couldn't leave the temple behind.
Again and again, images returned to his mind.
The colossal gate.
The towering pillars.
The shaft of light.
That unnatural silence.
For a moment, he found himself imagining what the interior might look like.
Then he gave his head a slight shake.
"Stop."
He barely whispered the word.
He couldn't allow himself to get lost in his imagination.
Not again.
The past few days had taught him that thinking too much could be dangerous.
Every time he searched for answers...
...he found only more questions.
Questions...
...greater than himself.
He lifted his eyes and looked ahead once more.
The river led him deeper into the gorge.
In some places, the valley narrowed until the cliffs swallowed almost all of the sunlight.
Then the landscape opened again, revealing broad stretches of grass where tiny wildflowers bloomed between the stones.
Samuel began to notice how different this world could be.
Only a few hours ago...
...it had felt like an endless nightmare of stone and darkness.
Now dragonflies danced above the river.
Small birds hopped through the grass.
The wind rippled across the meadow like waves upon the sea.
It was...
...almost peaceful.
Almost.
Because whenever Samuel lifted his gaze beyond the gorge...
...he saw them again.
The mountains.
Or rather...
...what must once have been mountains.
They did not look like ranges that had slowly risen over countless ages.
Their peaks thrust sharply into the sky...
...as though an unimaginable force had torn the earth apart and hurled it upward in a single instant.
Gigantic towers of rock leaned against one another at impossible angles.
Between them stretched dark chasms whose depths refused to surrender even the smallest trace of light.
The farther his gaze wandered north...
...the more extreme the landscape became.
The peaks grew higher.
The fractures deeper.
The stone itself looked more violently torn apart.
Samuel stopped walking.
He remembered the temple.
The fissures cutting across its great plaza.
The half-destroyed towers.
Slowly, he lifted his eyes toward the mountains once again.
"Could..."
"...all of this really have been caused by the same event?"
The question refused to leave him.
Samuel still knew almost nothing about this world.
Too many questions remained unanswered.
Too many things lay beyond his understanding.
But one thing...
...he now knew with frightening certainty.
The stories he had once heard around the campfire...
...had not been mere fairy tales.
Not entirely.
If beings had truly possessed the power to reshape entire landscapes...
If they had been capable of creating—or destroying—things that endured even beyond time itself...
Then perhaps these mountains...
...were not simply mountains.
Perhaps...
...they were something else.
Scars.
The remains of a battle so ancient...
...that no one remembered it anymore.
The traces of a conflict so immense...
...that no human could still imagine its scale.
Samuel swallowed.
The thought alone made the world around him seem even larger.
More endless.
And at the same time...
...far more terrifying.
How many places like this were still out there?
How many secrets lay buried beneath earth and stone...
...forgotten by the world...
...without anyone even suspecting they existed?
His thoughts wandered back to the narrow crack in the rock through which he had escaped the cavern.
How insignificant it had looked.
Almost laughably small.
Just a fracture in the mountainside...
...easy to overlook.
And behind it...
...an immense underground world.
A cavern large enough to contain entire cities.
A place that hadn't felt like a natural part of the mountain at all...
...but like something that had been deliberately created.
Samuel couldn't help himself.
Slowly...
...he turned around one last time.
His eyes searched for the place where the exit had been.
But there was nothing.
Only rock.
Grass.
And the vast sky above.
Nothing more.
It was almost as though the mountain had reclaimed its secret.
As though it had swallowed every trace of what lay hidden inside...
...and now stood silently guarding it.
Samuel remained still for a moment.
Then he drew a deep breath.
"Maybe..."
"...that's for the best."
He was sixteen years old.
Injured.
Exhausted.
Alone.
What could he possibly have accomplished down there?
Nothing.
Even if answers truly waited beyond those colossal gates...
Even if unimaginable secrets lay hidden beneath the mountain...
...they would have to wait.
Samuel wasn't ready.
Not yet.
He had another goal.
The city.
That was where he had to go first.
There he needed to learn.
To understand.
To discover how this world truly worked.
He had to become stronger.
Only then...
...could he even think about returning to places like this.
About facing whatever lay hidden there.
The thought felt reasonable.
Almost comforting.
At least...
...for the moment.
Samuel continued walking.
The wind drifted through the gorge, setting the tall grass along the riverbank into a gentle sway.
The steady murmur of the river accompanied every step he took.
High above the jagged cliffs, bright clouds drifted slowly across the deep blue sky.
The sun continued its journey westward, bathing the landscape in warm golden light.
For the first time since his fall...
...Samuel felt that he could truly breathe again.
Every step hurt.
His knees burned.
His hands were covered in torn wounds.
His left arm throbbed relentlessly.
Yet somehow...
...none of it seemed to matter as much anymore.
He was alive.
And for now...
...that alone was enough.
Slowly, his hand brushed across the handle of the knife at his belt.
The familiar shape beneath his fingers gave him a strange sense of comfort.
Without thinking...
...he remembered Gustov.
"Keep moving..."
A faint smile appeared on his face.
Only for a brief moment.
Then it faded once more.
Samuel didn't look back even once.
He didn't know whether it was because he was afraid...
...or because he feared he might stop walking if he did.
Perhaps...
...it was both.
The temple now rested somewhere deep inside the mountain.
Hidden beneath countless tons of stone.
Abandoned.
Silent.
As though it had never existed at all.
Samuel forced himself not to think about it anymore.
Not about the enormous gates.
Not about the endless staircase.
Not about the solitary beam of sunlight that had fallen so perfectly upon the entrance.
And above all...
...not about the question of who such a place had ever been built for.
He pushed the thoughts away.
Not because they were gone.
But because they couldn't give him answers.
Not today.
Today...
...he had to keep moving.
He had to find the city.
He had to survive.
Everything else...
...time would decide.
The wind grew slightly stronger, carrying with it the fresh scent of the river.
Samuel tightened the straps of his backpack...
...and took another step.
Then another.
Behind him...
...one of the greatest mysteries of this world disappeared into silence.
Ahead of him...
...lay nothing but an unknown road.
And although the temple had long since vanished from sight...
...its questions remained with him.
The wind grew a little stronger, carrying the fresh scent of the river with it.
Samuel pulled the backpack more firmly onto his shoulders...
...and continued walking.
Behind him...
...one of the greatest secrets of this world slowly disappeared beneath the mountain.
Ahead of him...
...lay only an unknown path.
And although the temple had long since vanished from sight...
...its questions remained.
Days would pass.
Weeks.
Perhaps even years.
Samuel would learn new things.
He would meet new people.
Fight new battles.
He would witness cities unlike anything he had ever imagined.
He would stand before kings...
...and before monsters.
He would uncover truths capable of shaking everything he believed about this world.
Yet despite all of that...
...there would always remain one memory he could never leave behind.
A silent temple.
Hidden beneath a mountain.
A place where a single beam of sunlight pierced the darkness...
...as though the heavens themselves had chosen not to forget it.
He still did not know its name.
Nor who had built it.
Nor why it had been abandoned.
But somewhere deep inside...
...he knew.
One day...
...he would return.
Not because he wanted to.
Because he would have to.
For some questions...
...do not disappear simply because we walk away from them.
They wait.
Patiently.
Until the day...
...we are finally ready to ask them again.
Samuel followed the river deeper into the gorge.
One step.
Then another.
Without looking back.
The wind whispered softly through the grass.
The river roared beside him.
High above, birds circled across the endless blue sky.
And far beneath the mountain...
...the temple remained exactly as it had been for ages.
Silent.
Watching.
Waiting.